Thread: Fear of re entering a state of psychosis when lucid dreaming

I have recently started doing reality checks during the day and have in the last few nights become aware of the fact that i am dreaming whilst i am dreaming through doing a check (looking at hands and wrist watch).

About a year ago i took a very strong hallucinogenic drug (which i regret) which put me into a state of psychosis for a day and required professional help to get me out of. This has never happened to me before and i do not struggle with any mental illness and i lead a stable life.

When i have become Lucid i have an instant fear that i am going to return to a state of craziness and in my dream my eyes start rolling into the back of my head and i start fitting. What i would like to know is how to remove this so that i can progress further and gain some form of dream control. I realise this is probably quite a unique problem but i am hoping some of you will have some techniques to help.

Thanks very much!

just don't worry. dream control, especially having that control in the first place, is heavily reliant on expectation. this works both ways, and so, if you expect a bout a psychosis, while you won't necessarily get it in waking life ( i think it would be impossible to alter your own mind in that way, but i might be wrong), strange things are likely to happen within the dream
basically, dream control (or the lack thereof) is probably the biggest example of the placebo effect ever. so, if you expect happy lucids, you're going to have happy lucids.

As splodeymissile said, it all works based on expectation.

You are in your own dream, and you control it. You just have to teach yourself to relax when you enter the dream. A good way of doing this might be visualization. Imagine yourself as you go into the dream, force yourself into that panicked state, then train yourself to breathe, take a moment, relax, calm down, then just continue with the dream. This might help you out. Good luck! And remember, nothing can harm you in a dream!

I think you need to break the metal association between that strong drug and lucidity. Somehow in your mind those two appear to be linked. However, lucid dreaming is not like being on drugs, in fact in some ways it is the opposite because you are in control not being controlled. Non lucid dreams are more like being on drugs than lucid dreams I would think - though personally the only drug I have experience with is alcohol, but based on that I would say that non lucid dreams are more like being drunk, whereas lucid dreams are more like being alert and not under the influence of a substance.

I definitely get where you're comming from. Whenever I experiment with psychedelics I think myself into a really bad hole that's hard to get out of. I don't know if you'll take anything from this, but sometimes I'll start thinking myself into a bad place and I'll be afraid it's gonna be as bad as when I was on psychedelics, but it never is. Everyone's different, but other people I've talked to prone to serious bad trips have similar fears. On a side note, it might be worth mentioning to a professional that hallucinogenic drugs bring something out in you.

I would tell myself, that I will try once and see how it goes. While I would keep in mind all the above suggestions, that it will not happen.

Since nothing will happen, it will give you confidence for more attempts.

Thanks for all your help guys really appreciate it, I will try practicing calming myself down and visualising getting over the panic. Really appreciated !